First post in long, long time!

Haven't visited this blog for a long time. I've caught up on the manga again (ch 599 was released this week). This post contains spoilers throughout.

I'm writing a series of one-shots about Kurama (Kyuubi) and Naruto. There's nothing smutty about them: they're just friendship fics, set in the canonverse. Basically, it's a series of conversations between Naruto and Kurama. I try to keep Naruto and Kurama in character throughout.

Fanfiction.Net link: Kurama by nettieneko

I'm going to write another when the manga progresses a bit further. Naruto and Kurama need some solid conservation material! I'll have to wait a few more weeks for more manga chapters to come out before I can write another.

Now that I've plugged my fanfics, I guess I should summarise my thoughts and feelings about the manga. A lot has changed over the years: the characters have grown up and so have I.

I'm still a SasuNaru fan! Naruto and Sasuke will always be my favourite characters. They're the most developed characters in the manga and they share a very unusual ... connection. It's not something that can be easily put into words and that's what makes it so special and unique. There's nothing else like it in any fiction I've enjoyed.

As for het shipping... Well, my enthusiasm for it is as flat as ever. Kishi just doesn't write and develop his female characters well enough for my tastes. I guess the main thing that's changed is that I no longer support NaruSaku. To hell with that shit, seriously!

Naruto should marry someone who loves him and puts him first in her heart. Naruto deserves nothing less than full, unwavering, lifetime commitment. That's what Naruto would give his wife, after all.

I think Hinata and Sakura are there to show the effects of Naruto and Sasuke's individual paths. Hinata, who loves Naruto, has grown stronger emotionally and mentally. Sakura, who loves Sasuke, is mentally and emotionally weak.

Hinata's love for Naruto has given her strength. Sakura's love for Sasuke drains her of strength and makes her suffer. There's a difference between a glass of milk every day and a glass of poison.

This is just another example of how most female characters in this story are nothing more than 'love interests'. Kishi's bad at writing female characters but he's even worse at writing romance. Thankfully, he did a good job on the Minato/Kushina relationship, but only because he didn't go into much detail.

Meanwhile, Kishi's bromance relationships seem to go too deep for most heterosexual male Naruto fans to really understand. When Naruto told Sasuke that they will both die when they fight each other it was meant to signify Naruto's acknowledgement of Sasuke's strength. They are equals and one cannot best the other! Just like at the Valley of the End, Sasuke rejected this idea and refused to accept that Naruto was his equal. Many Naruto fans don't seem to understand this and ignore this pivotal conversation as if it's simply another of Kishi's homoerotic wet dreams.

I explore Naruto's connection to Sasuke in Kurama, so check it out! ...Sorry... Couldn't resist another plug there!

Naruto, meanwhile, is growing up and becoming Hokage material. He's so awesome and I'm so proud of him. *tears up* He's come such a long way! Seeing him save Kakashi and Gai was so cool. And seeing Kakashi and Gai save Naruto from Tobi was also cool. I've been loving every minute of these chapters.

In fact, the whole war has been totally awesome ever since Naruto and Killer Bee (LOVE that guy, by the way) entered the battle. Naruto and Killer Bee are totally the best team ever. Non-stop pwnage.

I went back and read the first few manga chapters then skipped forward to the present and the amount of character development Naruto has been given is astounding. He was this naughty little brat who wanted attention and now he's Konoha's hero - a good, strong man. *tears up again*

Sasuke is continuing his steady descent into villainy and Naruto seems to be the last thing connecting him to reality. I say that because he's keeping to his earlier promise to kill Naruto before the rest of Konoha. Love may not be in the air but he still feels some kind of connection to Naruto and he's determined to symbolically sever that link before he pursues his revenge against Konoha. Sasuke wants to prove to himself that he's capable of cutting the strongest tie to his old life.

Sasuke sees his friendships in Konoha as nothing more than a part of the web of lies that kept him blinded to the truth. He was a pawn of the system that had his family quietly slaughtered. He needs to end it all and destroy those who, wittingly or not, deceived him.

I've always found it difficult to get into Sasuke's shoes and sympathise with him. His 'issues' are too huge for me to comprehend. I think the tragedy of the Uchiha massacre and the revelation of the lies he'd been fed about it were enough to damage Sasuke's trust in people forever. At this point, he's living by his own rules and even his sense of morality is fading (as evidenced by his betrayal of Karin and his attempted murder of Sakura).

The last thing connecting him to morality is Naruto. Sasuke knows that if he kills Naruto, he kills the last shred of morality in his heart. He would be vengeance incarnate. And that's what Sasuke wants more than anything.

As for the 'Tobi is Obito' revelation... Honestly, I'm in two minds about it. I'm a bit sad that Kishi has made even good and loyal Uchiha Obito into a villain. No Uchiha is spared the taint of villainy! On the other hand, it'll be very interesting to see how Kakashi reacts to this revelation. Obito had such an impact on his life. He was the one who Kakashi respected the most, the one whose grave he visited every morning. This 'reunion' is gonna be angsty.

Anyway, I suck at predictions. That's pretty obvious just from skimming over some of my old posts here on this blog. Everyone else in the fandom seems to suck at predictions too, so I'm not too bothered about it. Kishi likes to make his story unpredictable: there are almost always twists or unexpected interventions.

If I had to make a prediction, I'd say Tobi/Obito will give a lengthy explanation to Kakashi. Rin's death will probably be mentioned and maybe explained. Tobi/Obito will probably then use his Uchiha Art of Run in response to either a renewed attack by Naruto or the arrival of the Alliance ninja army.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll post again some day! :)

EDIT: I've updated the Fanfiction Recommendations List. I got rid of 10 old fanfics and replaced them with 10 new fanfics. My tastes have changed over the years. The list is much improved, in my opinion.

About Sakura...

Unlike many Naruto fans, I've never hated Sakura. In fact, I've always been rather neutral towards her. From the beginning, I was looking forward to seeing her begin to acknowledge Naruto as more than just an annoying idiot. I liked the hints of NaruSaku in the manga. I even collected NaruSaku fanart back in the early days of Part 2.
In Part 1, she was an unlikeable, rather annoying girl with shallow interests. I didn't hate her, but I didn't like her either. She was demonstrated to have better chakra control than her team-mates and first displayed her intelligence during the written test in the Chuunin exam. During the test, she showed some concern for Naruto's aspirations, which was quite touching.

Her first moment in the spotlight came when she cut her hair during the Chuunin exams; essentially cutting away her vanity. However, she was too weak to really defend herself. This was understandable, given that she didn't have any special abilities like many of her peers. I assumed that she was being set up as a late bloomer, which is pretty much what Ino confirmed when she too perceived that Sakura had potential.

After the Chuunin exams, Sakura became a constant pain in arse. She did nothing but visit people in hospital and whine and worry about 'Sasuke-kun'. It was during this period, until the end of the Part 1, that I disliked her appearances in the manga.

Of course, Sasuke was blatantly the center of her universe. It's true that Sasuke is pivotal to the overall plot and is also important to Naruto, but everything Sakura did in Part 1 (and even in her childhood flashbacks) was for Sasuke.

Here's a list:

• She grew her hair because she'd heard a rumour that Sasuke liked girls with long hair
• She broke off her friendship with Ino so she could compete for Sasuke
• She became a ninja so she could be close to Sasuke
• She climbed the tree during chakra training to impress Sasuke
• She cut her hair to protect Sasuke (and Naruto, to a lesser degree)
• She whined and cried for almost the whole of Part 1 about Sasuke
• She begged Sasuke to stay with her and even offered to leave Konoha with him

I couldn't respect her while she was dedicating her entire existance to a person who didn't feel the same way. I've always regarded her obsession with Sasuke to be the ugliest aspect of her character. Unfortunately, for the span of Part 1, it was almost the ONLY aspect of her character.

I was excited about her potential for growth at the end of Part 1, because she was finally taking action and trying to better herself as a ninja and a person by becoming Tsunade's apprentice.
The first arc of Part 2 was a breath of fresh air. Sakura was finally treating Naruto like a real and valued friend. She also displayed the skills she had gained during the time-skip: super-strength and medical ninjutsu, as well as knowledge of medicinal plants. She had become a capable ninja, and even took part in a fight for the first time.

Sakura and Naruto resolved to work together to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, whereas before she had always relied on Naruto to fight for her. I was proud of her and admired her development.

She disappointed me during the battle with Orochimaru, as she needed to be rescued by Yamato twice. Proving, once again, to be a burden. She admitted as much while she was healing Naruto after the fight, as she cried over the fact that she could only help in small ways. I could forgive her poor performance, because it was understandable when facing off against powerful foes (and an indiscriminate Kyuubi Naruto).

After seeing Sasuke again, Naruto was overcome with disappointment in his own abilities (an insecurity he's always had and continues to display). Sakura told him that crying wouldn't bring Sasuke back home, displaying a surprising amount of emotional strength. However, in the privacy of her home, she was shown to cry over her photograph of Team 7. Clearly, she was not as changed as she had led us to believe, because her behaviour was reminiscent of her Part 1 personality.

From then on, she again took a back seat in the story. She made only minor appearances and performed no impressive feats (unless you count the summon she punched during the Pain invasion). She was made to look helpless after Pain destroyed the village, in order to make Naruto's return more grand.

This helplessness in Sakura has continued ever since.

Naruto needed to save her during a brief altercation with the Karui and Omoi. The very next chapter, she broke down in a fit of sobbing over a question about Sasuke. Clearly, she is feeling conflicted and upset ... but to display such weakness in the presence of others is, frankly, embarrassing.

She has set herself the goal of returning Sasuke to Konoha. She promised herself that she'd never again be a burden to Naruto. She promised herself that she'd help Naruto in bringing Sasuke home. Yet, she's been unable to back up her words and now appears to be a hypocrite as well (by openly crying when she'd previously told Naruto that crying over the Sasuke situation was pointless).

Her bout of tears was curiously reminiscent of her five-year-old self. The fact that Naruto has been forced, once again, to promise to handle the situation by himself seems to be huge regression for Sakura.Needless to say, readers have expressed their disappointment and embarrassment at Sakura's behaviour. But is it REALLY a regression?

It looks like Sasuke remains at the center of her universe. And now, after she's learned the depth of his betrayal, she feels as if her hopes and dreams have been cruelly dashed. She's unable to express how she feels about Sasuke, because she is fundamentally conflicted. How can she continue to love and defend him when he has pitted himself against Konoha and Naruto as a member of Akatsuki, under Madara's thumb?

It was a moment of weakness, but I believe it's part of her development. Sasuke is a huge, unresolved issue in Sakura's life. If you ask me, she needs to set aside her unrequited devotion and become her own person. Only when she has her own aspirations will she become strong enough to face her feelings.

I do hope Kishimoto will allow Sakura to redeem herself.

A timely update

Hello, random person!

It's been a long time, but I suddenly felt the urge to update this old blog. A little news about myself: I'm in my last term at college and ready to head out into the great British recession to find a job. Wish me luck.

As for Naruto ... I'm still reading the manga every week! It's been pretty angsty lately. So much has happened since I last discussed the manga, so I'll run through some highlights.

**Manga Spoilers**

Let's see... There was Jiraiya's death, Sasuke vs Itachi, the truth about Itachi, Madara's manipulation of Sasuke, Naruto's mystery gift from Itachi, Pain's invasion of Konoha...
OMG 437! The confession and stabbing of Hinata. An amazing twist. I must admit though, I think it would have been more hard-hitting if she'd actually died.The end of 439 was such a shock. Yondaime randomly appearing like that made me fangirl squeal for the first time in ages (well, at least the first time since 431 when Naruto threw the gigantic rhino).The last few chapters with the Nagato flashbacks have been pretty dull. Mostly because they've been so predictable. Now the flashbacks are (hopefully) over with 447, things should start to get interesting again. I've a feeling we'll be seeing Danzou again soon.

Naruto wishes to refrain from killing Pain in revenge... Many of the villagers would vehemently disagree with this act of mercy. Of course, I'll be surprised if Nagato doesn't attempt to attack Naruto again. Surely he'll try to capture Naruto again - it's his ultimate goal, right? I doubt he'll be swayed by Naruto's words and ideas about peace.

Events can only get more interesting from here. We'll see what happens in the aftermath of Pain's invasion. The issue with the Cloud ninjas and Killer Bee is due to resurface. Sasuke, of course, will be a welcome sight again. I can't wait for his next reunion with Naruto! I predict major angst. Naruto doesn't even know that Sasuke has joined Akatsuki yet!

11 kinds of Naruto fanfics that suck

I need to get something off my chest, so I present to you:

11 kinds of Naruto fanfics I'm tired of
and their cruddy summaries
Why 11? Because I thought of 1 more than 10.

1.
Typical high school fic
Sasuke is the most popular guy in school... Overdone much?
So many AU fics are set in high school. 90% of them follow the same damn plot and are never completed.

2.
Gravitation-like band fic *pukes*
Naruto, Kiba and Gaara are in a band! ... SNORE.
I despise these fics. The very idea of Naruto characters beating on drums and playing guitars puts me off straight away.

3.
Masked Naruto fic
Naruto is tired of hiding behind his mask... *insert tear drop*
Hello! Naruto's not a genius. That's why he rocks! He's determined to prove himself worthy, so why would he hide his genius? The whole idea is a ridiculous excuse to change Naruto's personality and appearance.

4.
WTF OCs fic
Janie, Star and Raven are thrown into the Naruto world! ... ¬_¬''
Too many of these for my liking. They're always crappily written and the inserted characters are snore-worthy. Mary Sues. Bah!

5.
Suck-at-summary fic
I suck at summaries LOL ... *cue to ignore fic*
Why do so many people say that in their summaries? It basically translates to "I suck at writing". I never read fics with that bullshit in the summary.

6.
Pukesome Naru-chan fic
Naru-chan is a beautiful princess ... *insert inane, cutesy crap*
Jesus, I think I'd prefer even SasuSaku over this! Naru, Naruko, etc are shite names. FemNaru sucks. So does girly-uke!Naruto. Naruto does NOT look like a girl.

7.
Dumbass fic
naruot,is raypedby ,villajers,whatwill saskeu do!!!! ... Retard.
Barely literate people and the under 12's write shit fanfiction. A few spelling mistakes I can handle, but sometimes it goes far beyond that.

8.
Too-much-fox fic
Naruto is the golden nine-tailed demon fox of legend! ... Bet this fic sucks.
These fics where Naruto is or becomes the 'King Fox' (or whatever) look just plain corny to me. I don't mind Kyuubi, but Naruto as a genius/beautiful hanyou? C'mon! Urgh, and when the author decides to make Naruto's hair long and flowing? *gags*

9.
Emo Naruto fic
Naruto is sick of life and being hated, so he cuts himself... ROFL As if!
Naruto would never cut himself. Period. A few of my friends have cut themselves in the past, so I know that it's a fairly common teen issue, but it's completely OOC for Naruto to do something so weak and desperate.

10.
No-real-summary fic
Naruto decides to do something, but why and for who? ... Who cares?
I hate fics with no summary information. Sorry, but I need pairing info if I'm going to read a long-ass fanfic. I don't want to waste my time on a SasuSaku or someshit.

11.
Ebil villagers fic
The villagers try to kill Naruto, so he runs away... Join the masses!
Tons of these about. Some, mind you, actually have a decent plot, but most are unrealistic and badly written. Naruto would not put up with shit from the villagers and he certainly wouldn't let them cheat/rape/beat him. He'd kick ass first.

< /end rant list >

The fic summaries in this list are written by me and are meant as examples only. They mostly concern the common types of stories found on Fanfiction.Net, when searching for SasuNaru fics.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of stellar fanfics out there, I'm just tired of seeing so many crappy/samey ones popping up in the search results.

Howdy!

I just signed into Blogger to find that some links on this blog have expired. In particular, the doujinshi download link I put up some time ago on THIS post. I've put up 2 new download links on that page. If anyone encounters any problems with them, just leave a comment and I'll try my best to fix it. ^_^

Well, now that I'm here I may as well update the Fanfic Recs and AMV Archive.

RIP Nettie's Nest

Wow, this place died rather suddenly, didn't it? It's been a long time without an update or even a sign of life from me!

It seems that adult life has finally caught up with me and I now have less time for leisure and a broader range of interests to indulge in that limited 'me' time. Yes, it happens to everyone one day.

While I continue to be an avid fan of Naruto (I'm lovin' Shippuuden, by the way!) I no longer have the same amount of time or even the inclination to write so extensively about it.

Therefore, this is my goodbye. There will be no more updates. I figured it's time to let this place rest in peace.

Here is a final gift to any fangirls (or really gay fanboys! ^^;;) who visit this place:

A minimalistic, pink Naruto wallpaper I made! Hope you like!

I will keep this blog up, rather than deleting it, because it contains some lovely links for you peoples.

As for me, I've almost finished my IT course and I'm thinking of training as a librarian. I've always loved libraries. With my admirable intelligence and extensive knowledge of all things literate, I think it will suit me.

I hope you all live long and happy lives and continue to enjoy Naruto, as I do! So long and thanks for all the fish.

The Masked Things

G'day, night, whatever! I'm back with a post about Naruto manga chapter 334.

*~*Chapter 334 Spoilers*~*

This week's chapter was brilliantly freaky! Finally, we have some idea about Kakuzu's abilities. Suddenly, his powers seem far more abominable than Hidan's.

When those scary, black ghost things appeared, the first thoughts in my mind were; "WTF?!", "Are they puppets?" and "WTF?!"

I must admit, I was intrigued, but hardly impressed. That was until I got a good look at those creepy-as-hell masked creatures. They're so cool and terrifying! Shikamaru and Chouji's reaction of disgust and trepidation to them was really quite understandable.

I still have no idea how that whole thing works, with the masked thingies flying out Kakuzu's back and attacking everyone.

And why the HELL did Hidan look so sad and contemplative when one of them died away? Unless I read his expression very wrong, that's a total mystery to me... Maybe it's because he was seeing a small part of Kakuzu dying... Awww!!

So it appears that the tables have turned once again, Kakuzu and Hidan are getting serious and are responding with typical Akatsuki ferocity.

Suddenly I'm no longer worried for Hidan and Kakuzu, but for Team Shikamaru.

Only Ino seems to be safe at the moment, hiding behind her tree. I guess her attack style, to hide and strike at the opportune moment, demands that she remain out of sight. Wouldn't it be great if she did something really unexpectedly awesome though?

Of course, odds are she'll do absolutely nothing. If she does do something, it'll probably be healing someone's cut knee or something boring like that...

Shikamaru's not through yet, however. He's a tactical genius, after all. He'll be analysing every movement Hidan and Kakuzu make and searching for points of attack that may be effective. Nothing will escape his notice!

As for Kakashi, he seems to be stripping down, doesn't he? First the jacket, then the gloves. Let's not forget the beginnings of that tear in his mask. Will we get to see his face, maybe? Wow, I'd have such mixed feelings about that.

I noticed that Kakashi looks younger without his jacket. I like it! Heh heh!

Predictions for future chapters? Well, it looks like the stage has been set for a huge elemental battle. It's going to be good, that's all I know for sure.

*~*End of Spoilers*~*

I'm going Christmas shopping this weekend. You should too! Get it all over with and wrapped up.

I'm hoping for some Naruto manga from my uncle. He bought me manga last year and this year I've asked for some more. Heh heh!